Coating device



July 31, 1923.I

c. H. MACDONALD ET AL COATING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed July 8, 1920 July 31, 1923. 1,463,476

C. H. MACDONALD ET AL coATING DEVICE Filed July 8, 1'920 2 sheets-sheet 2 )lll/Ill Patented July 31 v1923.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES H. MACDONALD, or MoNTcLA1R,-ANn LERoY L. -sALE1sBERG,' 0E NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, AssIGNoRs 'ro IvERs-LEE COMPANY, or NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, A

CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

COATING DEVICE.

Application tiled July 8, 1920. Serial No. 394,717.

To all whom t may concer/n.:

Be it known that we, CHARLES H. MAC- DONALD, a subject of the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a resident of Montclair, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, and LEROY L. SALEISBERG, ka citizen of the United States, and a resident of Newark, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Coating Devices, of which .the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to an improvement in coating devices which may be used to advantage in connection with packaging machinesof the type adapted to enclose candies, medicinal tablets and the like in a continuous strip of paper to form a protective covering. One object of the invention is to provide a device of the'kind described by means of which the package with articles enclosed may receive a coating of paraiiin or other suitable material, not only to render the package more impervious to moisture but also to provide adhesive means by which the adjacent folds of such a package may be securely held in contact to form a package of substantially bloc form if desired.

'One embodiment of our invention is illustrated in the drawings accompanyingr the present specification, and inv Which- Figure 1 is a front elevation partly in vertical section and with portions broken away,

Figure 2, a detail View of a portion of the flow regulating means,

Figure 3, a fragment of a bloc package such as may conveniently be coated and held together by the improved'apparatus,

Figure 4, a vertical section on the line 4-4 of Figure 1and Figure 5, a detail sectional view of a preferred form of spraying nozzle showing the relative position of the same with respect to the article guiding means.

'Referring to the drawings, a supply of coating material such as paraflin is held in a container 1, preferably, of metal exposed at the bottom and insulated on the sides by insulating material 2. Heat may be transmitted to the. exposed bottom of the metallic container from a resistance element 3 (Figure 4). To control the temperature of the melted paraflin in the container, we provide a thermostat 4 in effective communication with the container and the melted wax therein, said thermostat being operatively connected with the resistance element 3 in a well known manner to control the flow of current through said element.

Referring to Figure 1, the article such as a package of candies or medicinal tablets enclosed in a package of strip yform and bent or folded transversely in zigzag fashion is guided and supported by a guiding member 5 shown" in the drawings as consisting of four substantially parallel rods spaced apart to permit the passage of the article as it comes from the packaging machine (not shown). These rods are preferably bent in such a manner as to alter the direction of the path of the article, thus interposing a slight resistance to its passage so that succeeding folds or layers of the package will be pressed into contact with the preceding layers as the article progresses through the coating operation and after receiving an initial coating of the coating material. As indicated more clearly in Figure 5, the coating material is projected against the article through perforations 6 in opposed nozzles 7, one arranged' at each side of the support 5. Thus, the package may be subjected to substantially converging streams of melted paralin. The coating material is forced into the nozzle 7 through a suitable conduit by means of a pump 8, indicated in Figure 4, the paraflin being drawn into and through said pump from. a point adjacent to the bottom of the container. A valve 9 is located ata convenient place in `the conduit and is adapted to permit control of the amount of paraliin or coating material supplied to the nozzle 7 by means of a valve operating handle 20 having an adjustable set screw. 21 cooperating with a fixed stop 22; The extent of valve lopening deflection of the handle 20 is limited by said set screw and stop and, when the flow of paraffin is once determined for a given package, it can be maintained in repeated operations even though the valve may be entirely closed from time to time. This regulation of the valve opening permits the use of a continuously operating pump of constant capacity.

It is contemplated that under some conditions of operation, there will be an excess Q Maaate of coating material over what is required to e'ectively coat the surfaces ofthe package and retain theadjacent portions thereof in adhering contact after the coating material has congealed. '.lo eliminate this excess of material, We have provided a compressed air discharging nozzle 10 arranged to direct a blast of air against the coated article before the coating material has congealed. Perforations l1 in said nozzle direct a blast downwardly while'perforations l2 directa blast transversely. Such excess material as is removed by the air blast finds its way again into the interior of the container. Air under pressure may be supplied to the air blast nozzle through a suitable conduit 13 operatively connected with a compressor 14 or' other suitable air compressing element.

As the coated package moves in a direction ofthe larrow indicated in Figure l, it is discharged upon a platform l5 arranged at the discharge end of the guiding member 5.

From the foregoing description of the o eration of our improved `coating device, -1t will be clear 'that the coating method therein disclosed includes the step of exposing the article to sprays of paraiiin or other suitable coating material and then subjects the coated article to a blast of air to remove the excess coating material, during which time the folds of the article are pressed into contact so that, when the par coating material congeals, the resulting ackage will be one of' substantially bloc orm.

We claim as our invention:

l. A coating device-for a' strip bent transversely to form portions arranged in zigzag relation, comprising a container for coating material. means for applying said materialto opposed yfaces'ot said portions, and means for yieldingly resisting advance of the coated bent strip to ellect adhering contact between said opposed 'coated faces of portions thereof.

2. A coating device for a strip bent transversely to form portions arranged in 'zigzag relation, comprising a container for coating material, means for applying an excess of said material to op osed lfaces of said portions, means for y1e dingly resisting advance of the 'coated bent strip to ellect contact between said opposed coated laces of portions thereof, and means for removin 'excess coating material from portions hel in contact by operation ofthe advance resistin means.

3. coating device for a strip bent transversely to form portions arranged in zigzag relation, comprising a containerv for coating material, means-for applying said material to opposed faces of said portions,

means for yie ingly resisting advance 'of the coated bent strip to eect adhering contact between said opposed coated faces of portions thereof, and means for directing a blast of air against said coated bent strip..

4. A coating device for a strip bent transversely to form portions arranged in zigzag relation, comprlslng the container l for coating material, means for applying said inaterial, to opposed faces of said portions and means for ieldingly resisting advance of the coated ent strip including edge contacting members bent to form a guideway having 'cou'nicating portions rgith4 their axes disposed at an angle to each other.

lin testimony whereof we have si a our names to this specilication'this 2511; day of aune, le20.

cans n. Macnonann. tenor n snnrrsanae.

alli 

